Korea’s most prestigious school Yonsei University opened Asia’s largest scale of Animal Testing LAB, ‘Avison Biomedical Research Center (ABMRC)’ on 10th April. Located inside Shin-chon Severance Hospital, construction only cost more than 110,000,000,000won(approx.100,000,000 USD), total floor area is 40,000 m². Avison LAB is able to accommodate over 7,800animals such as dogs, pigs, monkeys and about 80% of them will be used for research.

Korean animal activist organizations such as CARE, KAAP, Voice4animals are uniting their voice saying that animal testing is unscientific and inhumane. While most of the countries are investing in alternative methods and try to reduce animal testing, this brings up concerns revealing Korea’s Animal testing supremacy.

Animal testing’s scientific aspects are also suspicious. Human and other animals only share 1.16%of the diseases. The percentage of animals testing showing on human’s testing is only about 10-20%. Thus, new medications through animal testing caused fatal toxic and side effects, and some medication which had severe side effects on animal testing actually cured diseases in many cases.

About 100,000 people die in the US each year from side effect of animal tested new medications. Animal testing is actually slowing down the medical science’s progress. Criticism is getting higher that animal testing is riskier than flipping a coin.

Yonsei university should overcome this animal testing supremacy paradigm, invest their time, people, finance and passion in alternative methods. European Union(EU) banned animal testing on cosmetic final products in 2004, banned animal testing on cosmetic ingredients in 2009, and completely banned import and sales of animal tested cosmetics within EU last 11th March, 2013. This is the success of applying alternative methods without using animals.

But the animal testing organizations within Korea does not have a moral standards on animal testing, and the Animal testing Ethics Committee is nominal. All animals caged in animal testing LABs are imprisoned, living their life in suffering testing and thrown away after being used.

Yonsei University should reveal to the citizen if they have any international class of animal testing guidelines, how the animals are being kept and raised, if the animal testing’s legitimacy was righteously deliberated, the welfare plan of tested animals, if they have a testing guideline of primates’ animal testing. Also, Yonsei university should explain if they have any plan to invest on alternative testing without using animals.

Yonsei university should stop bragging their LAB as the largest scale testing LAB. But instead they should actively research and test for alternative methods and invest their time, people and finance in that way.

We're protesting/peittioning against Yonsei University's ABMRC Animal Cruelty LAB for their inhumane research methods, also to Seoul city for giving out permission to such cruel facility, and to Korean government and President Park Geun-Hye for letting animal cruelty go through the law.